For anyone who uses Reason, but always wished for more in the ways of multichannel mixing.

Some time ago I decided I'd like surround panning capability in Reason. I searched the web, and found this method, which uses the Matrix Sequencer as an X/Y controller in Reason 2.5 (Released May 2003) to achieve 5.1 surround. This wasn't quite what I was looking for, so I set out to create my own.

Propellerhead's very own James Bernard posted in 2009 about using TouchOSC on an iPhone to send OSC/midi to Reason. After the iPad's takeover, innumerable apps were developed for this same purpose. Even Jazzmutant's legendary Lemur lives on via Liine's iOS app. I stuck with TouchOSC, and this is what I came up with.

Reason Rack Routing

One basic track is comprised of one 14:2 Mixer, and four 6:2 Mixers. They are tied to the Combinator's Programmer in such a way that the mixers' Pan determines Left/Right, while Volume determines Front/Back placement. There are independent controls for Center and LFE Channel level. The buttons on the Programmer can reset the positioning to center (either L/R or F/B), and solo the center and LFE channels. Overall track volume can be scaled with the first and only fader used in each track's 14:2 Mixer. Or, if you route the Direct Out from each track to the input of its own 14:2 Mixer, you can use the Master Mixer's faders instead.

For the template, I've set up four Mix Channels and four audio tracks.

All the individual tracks are summed through four more tracks containing 14:2 Mixers to form each discrete channel.

TouchOSC Templates

In TouchOSC, eight pages bear an identical layout, but send different OSC and MIDI values, and are thus assignable as eight separate but equal track controllers.

In Reason, the quickest way to assign software switches or faders to hardware is to enter Remote Override Edit Mode. In TouchOSC, two faders beside each X/Y Pad exist for this purpose. One sends the same message as the X-axis on the pad, the other duplicates the Y-axis.

The other two faders and four switches correspond to the remaining Combinator controls for each track. The solo buttons are toggles; the pan resets are momentary.

Also included are a few more custom TouchOSC layouts. One page in particular is mapped to the Reason transport. In any case, it's likely you'll have to assign each parameter manually once Reason is open, as well as provide output routing specific to your equipment.

The master volume for all channels is in the Master Section Insert FX. Because of the unusual setup, the master fader does nothing, nor does the master bus compressor. Reroute if you dare!

Hopefully this helps anyone wanting and waiting for a decent surround panner in Reason. Feel free to post any improved or modified versions below.